Prince Finally Settles With Warner Bros, But Why?

Remember back in 1996 when Prince famously changed his name to a weird symbol, following a protracted dispute with his record label, Warner Bros?  He wrote the word "slave" on his cheek and vowed to release his new music himself over the internet?

I'm always intrigued by the epilogues to famous events.  Well, yesterday Prince settled his 18 year dispute with Warner Bros., it was announced.  You can read more details HERE. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Prince regained the ownership of his back catalog, and Warner Bros. will soon be releasing "previously unheard material" from Prince's tenure with the label, as well as a 30th anniversary edition of "Purple Rain." 

In the end, Prince, now 55 years old, was not able to match his prior, chart-topping successes releasing his music on his own. He said in a statement yesterday that he's "pleased," and that he looks "forward to a fruitful working relationship" with Warner Bros.

Why did this happen?  And why now? Billboard provides the answer HERE. It's rooted in changes to U.S. copyright law, as it turns out, not in reconciliation and healing. "This deal marks a new era as the ability to terminate master recording copyright after 35 years was granted in the Copyright Revision Act of 1976 and became effective in 1978, the year that Prince's debut album came out... As 2013 loomed, record label executives and artists managers said that they were unsure how copyright terminations and ownership reversions would play out as they expected a precedent-setting court case to decide whether the 'work-for-hire' clause in standard recording contracts could successfully be challenged by artists."

CIA Uses "Chili Peppers" Songs To Torture

I started reading THIS article from the Huffington Post because it's headline touted the revelation that the CIA apparently used Red Hot Chili Peppers songs as part of its "enhanced interrogation techniques" at Guantanamo Bay.

It made me laugh because I like their music myself.  But then two other references in this article caught my eye. One was that the band Skinny Puppy apparently got wind that their music was being used in the same way, and they apparently sent an invoice tio the CIA, billing them for the use of their songs.

The other aspect of this article that caught my eye was its phraseology. It reads in part, "a detainee identified as Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn Abu Zubaydah was tortured while listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers on loop."  It obvoisly gives a very different impression of what was going on depending on whether 'while" really means "while" (implying the music was played as a background soundtrack to, say, water boarding), or whether, to bemore  accurate, 'while" should really be replaced with "by" (implying that merely listening to the music was "torture").

THIS National Journal article may give more insight on this point. "Zubaydah was also shackled at the wrists and hung to the ceiling of his cell, all the while loud music was played on an endless loop."  But this sentence contains its own frustrating ambiguities.  Is it the shackles and chains that were hung to the ceiling, or Zubaydah himself?

Kurt Cobain: 20 Years Later

I can still remember where I was when I first heard that Kurt Cobain had shot and killed himself 20 years ago today. With the benefit of hindsight, the fact that an indie band like Nirvana knocked Michael Jackson off the top of the Billboard charts back then doesn't seem so much like a music revolution, as part of a temporary fad for 'grunge.'

Nonetheless, THIS article from CNBC suggests that Cobain's estate is worth over $450M today, in part because Nirvana's music has apparently had more staying power than that of other acts.  They sold 350,000 albums in 2013, and 900,000 singles. An emphasis of this article is the delicate, and sometimes subjective, balance between commercializing Cobain's music and image without undercutting his anti-corporate, anti-celebrity persona.

Below is the new TV commercial for Bavaria beer referenced in this CNBC article, the premise of which is that Kurt Cobain, along with other dead celebrities including Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, and Tupac Shakur, are all secretly hiding out together on a desert island. (I'm not sure that any of them would've loved this.)

Rolling Stone: KISS After 40 Years

I was never a big fan of the band KISS myself.  Despite the fact that they're going to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in a few weeks, I think I would recognize only 3 or 4 of their songs. But there's no denying that their persistent endurance and ubiquitous licensing have long-since transcended Gene Simmons' preternaturally long tongue dripping fake blood onstage in the 1970s.

Well, on the brink of their Hall of Fame induction, Rolling Stone magazine just published THIS very readable profile of the band today, featuring separate interviews with all four original members (two of whom have been out of the band for years).  Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley came across to me like two guys who have had a successful partnership for four decades, but perhaps not a deep friendship.  And the other two guys struck me as people who still defined themselves in opposition to a band (and band mates) that they left long ago.  Most intriguingly, Gene Simmons comes across as a man in late middle age, a little lonely living in a KISS museum he built proudly for himself.

New E-Mails About Michael Jackson's Comeback

"The story of Jackson's ill-fated comeback attempt has been told in news reports, a manslaughter trial and a feature-length documentary. But a cache of confidential AEG emails obtained by The Times offers a darker picture of the relationship between the down-on-his-luck idol and the buttoned-up corporation taking a bet on his erratic talents."

"'MJ is locked in his room drunk and despondent,' Phillips said in an email to his boss at Anschutz Entertainment Group, the Los Angeles company staking a fortune on the singer. 'I [am] trying to sober him up... I screamed at him so loud the walls are shaking... He is an emotionally paralyzed mess riddled with self loathing and doubt now that it is show time.'"

You can read more in the Los Angeles Times HERE.

J. Geils Sues "J. Geils Band"

"John Geils, founder of the J. Geils Band, has filed a lawsuit against the other members of the group over use of the name in an upcoming tour that doesn't feature the guitarist."  You can read the full Rolling Stone article HERE.

This reminded me of how Wally Amos lost the rights to use the name "Famous Amos" in the 1980s after financial troubles forced him to sell the pioneering cookie company he founded in 1975, the "Famous Amos Company," which held the trademark to his nickname "Famous Amos." (In 1994, Wally Amos instead launched "Uncle Noname Gourmet Muffins," to considerably less fanfare.)

Today the "Famous Amos" cookie brand is owned by Kelloggs.  But the ownership chain of the brand is really pretty amazing, as it turns out.  Kellogs acquired the brand when it bought Keebler in 2001.  Keebler came to own the brand when it purchased the President Baking Company in 1998. In 1992, President Baking Company bought the brand from The Shansby Group. And there were apparently four other owners of the well-travelled "Famous Amos" brand between 1985 and 1989.

David Bowie And Mick Jagger's "Affair"

Along with stories about salmon and pumping stomachs back stage, one of the most persistent rumors I heard as a teenager in the 1980s about the wild antics of the (then aging) rock 'n roll stars of the 1960s and 70s, was that Mick Jagger and David Bowie had once been found in bed together. 

According to THIS story in today's New York Daily News, a newly published book confirms that did indeed happen.  The depth of the relationship between the two men as detailed in this article really surprised me.  But the biggest eye opener for me was the very last sentence.

The Surprising Origin of "Billboard" Magazine

The first issue of Billboard magazine was published on this date back in 1894. That date surprised me, because I associate Billboard with music charts, mostly rock and pop.

It turns out that Billboard started out as "Billboard Advertising" magazine, a trade magazine for the advertising industry published from Cincinnati, Ohio. A few years later it began to carry news about circuses, amusement parks, and fairs, because they were major purchasers of billboard advertising space. Billboard didn't begin publishing music charts until the 1930s, and didn't devote itself entirely to music until 1961. It ceased publication in 2006.

Courtney Love Today

Have you wondered what Courtney Love is up to these days?  You can read a fascinating, if lengthy, profile of her in the new issue of Vanity Fair HERE.  It begins, "Human train wreck or victimized genius? In the case of Courtney Love, the answer may be both, as the 47-year-old rock star wages an obsessive campaign to find out what happened to more than $250 million she says was stolen from the estate of Kurt Cobain, her late husband."

Nirvana Beyond The Hype Of "Nevermind"

Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the release of the first major label record by the seminal grunge band Nirvana, titled "Nevermind."  All of the praise today in the press about Nirvana's impact on popular music (and how they "changed music forever") conspicuously omits to mention, however, that they were in many ways a punk band whose live shows were far more dissonant than the heavily produced tracks on "Nevermind." 

I remember going to a Nirvana concert within the first few months of the release of "Nevermind" and complaining afterward that they had not played their #1 hit single "Smells Like Teen Spirit."  All I really saw at their live show was three scruffy guys who stared down at their shoes the whole time, while playing music that came out of the amplifiers like an angry cacophony of white noise, one song almost indistinguishable from the next.

As Nirvana became more and more famous, I used to tell this story all the time. And then, years later, after Kurt Cobain's suicide, a greatest hits album of sorts was released, featuring all live tracks.  And the version of their most famous hit, "Smells Like Teen Spirit," included on that record was recorded at the show I'd attended.

Rock Stars, Then And Now

NBC has posted a slide show of 100 photos HERE, juxtaposing photographs of famous rock stars from the 1960s through the 1980s against images of what they look like now.  I was actually surprised (and maybe, if I'm honest, a little disappointed) by how well so many of them look today.

"The Cars" First New Album In 24 Years Out Today

Do you remember the band, "The Cars"? Their last album was released in 1987.  So if you've thought of them at all over the last 25 years, it's probably been when you heard one of their old hits (like "Just What I Needed") on the local classic rock radio station, probably while driving.

Their first new album in 24 years is being released today, called "Move Like This." If you've only ever listened to The Cars' greatest hits album, or only heard their songs on the radio, you might think of them as a typical 'windows down, classic rock' band.  But the majority of the songs on their old albums were much more 70's New Wave.  The two new singles from the album have been posted on You Tube. One of the two singles, Sad Song, is closer to the classic rock style, while the other single, Blue Tip, is more New Wave.

Vince Neil Arrested For DUI (Again)

Vince Neil, the 49 year old lead singer of Motley Crue, was arrested in Las Vegas overnight on suspicion of drunk driving.  This is an even bigger issue than it might be for other celebrities because in 1986 Neil was convicted of vehicular manslaughter as a result of getting into a serious car accident in Redondo Beach that killed his friend and fellow musician, Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley.  


The two had been partying with friends at Neil's house nearby and had jumped in Neil's luxury sports car, wasted, to drive to a liquor store to buy more booze. Neil, whose blood alcohol level was later measured at 0.17, lost control of his car and hit an oncoming one, serious injuring the occupants of the other car and killing his passenger, Razzle. 


In July 1986 Neil was sentenced to 30 days in jail after agreeing to pay $2.5 million in  restitution to the victims and their families.  He was released after serving only 15 days for good behavior.

Iggy Pop's Last Ever Stage Dive

I've never been a huge Iggy Pop fan.  I never liked punk music much in general, or his original band The Stooges.  But he's been legendary for decades for his high energy live shows. Even I knew that. Though I hadn't heard much about him in recent years. Once or twice I'd wondered, when I'd hear one of his songs, whether, as he pushed toward Social Security eligibility (he'll be 63 years old  in a few weeks), he was still angrily stalking stages doing his "iguana dance," and theatrically ripping off his shirt mid-set to (predictably) reveal his signature ripped physique.  


Well , Rolling Stone magazine has answered my question today.  Iggy is indeed up to his old tricks onstage, amazingly.  But what's made news now is that when he did his stage dive at a Carnegie Hall concert recently, the audience of aging punk rockers suddenly parted and let him fall to the concrete floor. "Although some people in the front put up their hands to catch Iggy, those in his direct path let him drop, including the gentleman who had been goading Iggy to dive. Once Iggy was airborne, the man, in a total George Costanza move, pulled his arms back and stepped to the side. Others in the first and second row parted like the Red Sea. I screamed, 'Completely uncool!' at the people in front of us as Iggy crashed face-first into a seat."  


You can read the entire article, and see the 30 second video of his dive, HERE.

Guns N' Roses Concert (And Puppet Show)

I remember standing for hours in a long line outside a Tower Records on a cold autumn night in September 1991, anxiously waiting for it to hit midnight when the store began selling the new Guns N' Roses albums, Use Your Illusion I and II.  By the time I got home after 1 AM, there were probably 20 other college kids in my dorm room, all excited to hear those CDs. When I walked in, the room erupted with this gutteral, enthused "Yeahhhhhhhh!!!!" By  2 AM that night, those albums were blaring out of maybe a dozen different windows throughout the building. But as the subsequent years dragged on (and on) waiting for the release of their long-delayed follow-up album,  and as every one of the original line-up other than Axl Rose eventually quit the band, the passion of that night for Guns N' Roses steadily ebbed (for me and everyone else). 


I bought their new album, Chinese Democracy, anyway, on the first day it was finally released in November 2008. Though  I more or less dragged myself unenthusiastically to the store that day, as if I was  begrudgingly fulfilling a promise that I'd made years ago. By then there weren't any lines.  I walked right in and bought it, in maybe 30 seconds, and listened to it at home alone that afternoon.  Axl granted no interviews to promote the release of the album, and Guns N' Roses didn't tour in support of it, which may partly explain why it flopped so badly.  


But the "new" Guns N' Roses is now touring Canada, I learned today, reportedly as a warm-up for a United States tour this coming summer.  And I was surprised to see this morning that Rolling Stone magazine has a very favorable review HERE of their concert in Winnipeg a couple of nights ago. This review also has over a dozen photos from the concert.  Mercifully Axl has ditched the fake corn rows of the last few years.  Maybe there's hope for the band yet.  But has their star really fallen so far that they played to only 7,500 people in Winnipeg? ("Puppet Show and Guns N' Roses"?)

Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of the Decade

Rolling Stone magazine has released a list of their 100 best songs of the decade.

I must be getting old, because I only liked two of the top ten songs (Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" and U2's "Beautiful Day"), and only recognized two more songs in the top 50 from their titles alone (#13 "In Da Club" by 50 Cent, and #45 "Cant Get You Out of My Head" by Kylie Minogue).

It's probably predictable that this list would be top heavy with Coldplay (4 songs). But why so much Radiohead (3 songs)?

You can view the entire list here:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/31248926/100_best_songs_of_the_decade/27

Paul Anka Writes The Songs

You may have seen the news earlier this week that Paul Anka will reportedly receive 50 percent of the publishing rights from the new Michael Jackson single “This Is It” after it was discovered following its debut on Monday that it was in fact a song Jackson and Anka co-wrote in 1983. Anka had reportedly threatened legal action. The song is the centerpiece of the upcoming soundtrack to Jackson rehearsal documentary This Is It.

Did you know that the legendary 68 year old singer-songwriter also wrote the theme song to "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," as well as one of Tom Jones' biggest hits, "She's a Lady," and the lyrics to Frank Sinatra's "My Way"?

Harry Connick, Jr. On Australian TV

I met Harry Connick, Jr. once. It was at Mardi Gras in New Orleans in 1993. He was the king of the Bacchus parade that year. The parade ended with a black tie ball at the convention center. At one point during the ball I got up from our table and wandered over to check out the elaborate train of parade floats that was parked inside. And it was then that I ran into him in passing. Well, actually, I clumsily interjected myself as he was talking with a young woman (whom he married a year later). I was already a fan of his, and I had been celebrating with friends for several hours, so I was more talkative than I should have been. But he was incredibly gracious about it all.

Yesterday Harry Connick, Jr. made news because of his similarly gracious (but firmly disapproving) response to some performers on an Australian variety show who were dressed in black face. Here's the 1 minute segment about it from NBC news last night:

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Van Halen Sues Nike

According to Rolling Stone, "Eddie Van Halen’s red, white and black splatter-striped “Frankenstrat” guitar is one of the Van Halen leader’s true signatures. In fact, it’s so closely associated with the guitarist, Van Halen had the color scheme copyrighted in 2001. Now he’s suing Nike because he says the sportswear giant put a similar design on one of their Dunk Lows sneakers, Spinner reports."

In related news, James Hetfield is suing Eddie Van Halen for shamelessly copying the metal god cliche of becoming a drug addict and then, after cleaning up, getting a short haircut and fake tan.

NBA Finals: Marvin Gaye sings the National Anthem in 1983

Since game 2 of the NBA finals is being played tonight in Los Angeles, I have posted this You Tube video of Marvin Gaye singing the national anthem at the NBA all-star game in 1983.

This rendition is remembered fondly in part because of its unique arrangement, which incongruously echoed the sound of his then-current hit "Sexual Healing" in a surprisingly effective way. It is also remembered because just a year later Marvin Gaye was gunned down in his home by his own father.

If you watch this video, you will see that the crowd is initially uncertain about whether it likes this very different version of the Star Spangled Banner. But as the song goes along, the crowd begins clapping in unison with the rhythm, a seemingly collective, instantaneous recognition that they are watching a very special performance.